More psychiatric masturbation in The Times

by Tony Britton on August 6, 2011:

Interview with Professor Simon Wessely, The Times, 6 August 2011

From The Times, 6 August 2011 (story by Stefanie Marsh)

But what exactly is ME? A collection of symptoms that has much in common with irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia and post-traumatic stress disorder — afflictions that are little understood. Professor Wessely has identified, in some cases, that hormones play a part and that there can be a physical trigger for ME — glandular fever can be a trigger, though flu cannot — but it is to a large extent still a mysterious condition. There was a theory that ME was a retrovirus but it fell apart when tested. Online, ME sufferers conjecture that they have a virus, an immune problem, or poisoning.

Professor Wessely is dedicated, intelligent and well liked. He is also the kind of doctor who has never tried an “alternative” treatment of any kind himself. His attitude towards alternative medicine may sound cold to those afflicted with ME and desperate for help. It is understandable that some take umbrage at what he has said about the condition, especially if they are wedded to the notion that the illness is purely physical.

He directs me to a research paper which found that patients who were labelled with ME did worse than patients who were told they had post-viral fatigue syndrome. In one of his papers he argues: “Ultimately, a pessimistic illness perception can become a self-fulfilling prophecy of non-recovery.

“This group of CFS patients tends to view their symptoms as part of an overwhelming, mysterious, unexplainable disease that struck them out of the blue and from which they most likely will never recover. These illness expectations are often fuelled by the media, support groups . . . and other sufferers.”

He continues: “Like it or not, CFS is not simply an illness, but a cultural phenomenon and metaphor for our times.”

A metaphor that does not apparently translate into non-English speaking countries. “ME is virtually unknown in France, Italy and Spain. Only a small number of doctors will make this diagnosis. So most doctors will not call it this. They will call it neurasthenia, they might call it depression, they might call it stress. Now, that might be that they are blind, or it might be that the patients are too poor to seek healthcare. You see, it’s very difficult to know. But it certainly didn’t strike a chord with them in a way that it does over here. When we gave them descriptions of our typical clinical cases here in Britain, they didn’t recognise them. They said, ‘Nah, we haven’t seen that’.”

Does that mean that there are parts of the world where ME does not exist? “Well it does exist but it’s not labelled. In many countries it’s just not labelled as chronic fatigue syndrome . . . Certainly we know that in Italy we do know only a small number of doctors will make this diagnosis.”

What ME categorically is not, says Professor Wessely, is “what you and I get on a bad day”.



my ps:
Many ME patients are bedridden, and if unlucky tubefed.
does that look like neurasthenia, depression, or stress and does that happen with these conditions?
of course not my delightful friends from the Times, but please continue to proclaim the nonsense from crybaby, as he was called by Hillary Johnson, and continue to kiss his feet because psychiatric masturbation is a lot nicer than being a proper journalist, writing proper articles and making a proper newspaper .

See also: Harvard Medical School: EEG spectral coherence data distinguish chronic fatigue syndrome patients from healthy controls and depressed patients
See also: Cerebrospinal fluid profiles can differentiate between Lyme disease, ME/CFS and healthy controls
See also: Post-exercise acid exposure 50 times higher in ME/CFS patients vs healthy controls, with no reduction with repeat exercise
See also: The putative agent of ME/CFS can be transferred to monkeys